You May Forever Tarry
by The Madman From The Bronx
Summary: Frank has something to say to Nancy. Joe had no idea. Inspired by Deadly Device outtakes. Not exactly an alternate ending; just adding to what's there. Light FrankxNancy. R&R! Warning: MAJOR game spoilers.


Joe's eyes were glued to the screen.

Flashing back briefly, the two Hardy boys were nodding off, as it was four A.M. Huddled over their respective laptops, the two had split duty to find Nancy's unedited footage, and the code was no picnic. Things were getting a little sepia-tone here in comparison to Nancy's case in Colorado, so Frank and Joe were more than happy to help out—especially Frank.

"What do you think she's doing right now, Joe?"

"Probably sleeping. We're in the middle of the Atlantic… and six hours ahead, I think." Joe typed furiously.

"Do you think she's thinking about us?"

"She'd better be. I never thought she'd find a way to top submarines, but she did. Tesla, I salute you." He checked his watch.

"Does she even have any time to think of anything outside of the case? It sounds pretty intense."

"She has loads of time. All she has to do is find the raw footage, and the case is finished."

"No. No, she probably doesn't have any time," Frank mused.

"You haven't been listening to anything I've said, have you, Frank?"

"She'll be finished soon."

"I'm not so sure about that if you don't start looking at video feed on _your_ end."

Frank's eyes were fastened to his screen, much like Joe's, but uncharacteristically unfocused.

Joe sighed. "_Frances John Hardy!_" He bellowed.

Frank jumped. "Ah! What was that for, Joe?"

"Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?" Joe chastised. "Come on! Nancy's depending on us!" He leaned to the side to look over Frank's shoulders, only to have his hunch proven correct—Frank had done an astoundingly little amount of work.

"I know, Joe." Frank sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just that this case is different than her other cases—it's murder, after all. I worry, even though she's highly exper—Joe?"

Joe, to return to the beginning of this segment, stared at his computer screen for a full thirty seconds without saying a word, every bit as unresponsive as his brother had been until recently.

"Joe?" Frank asked tentatively.

Joe didn't speak for another fifteen seconds.

"Joe, what is i—"

"This is it!" Joe shouted, startling Frank. "This is it, Frank! Take a look!"

Frank pulled his chair next to Joe's and scooted the lamp they were sharing closer to Joe's monitor.

"Frank, look what I have pulled up! This is it! We've got to get this information to Nancy!" Joe scrambled up, attempted to find his balance (he had been seated for hours), and stumbled over to his phone before he could fully do so.

"_Joe!_ What is it? _Who_ is it?"

Joe swung around. "Watch it," he said simply, dialing on his phone.

Frank's eyes grew wider and wider as he did so. "It's Victor! Her client!" He blinked. "It wouldn't be the first time a case client was implicated, but _why_ would he hire Nancy, then?"

Hit with an idea, Joe cleared the number he was dialing. "_That's_ why he didn't hire a big shot, then! That's why he was so upset when Ryan couldn't have done it! He expected an amateur detective to play ball! _That's_ why he hired her. Don't you see, Frank?"

"He also had billions to gain from selling off Niko's work," said Frank grimly.

Joe dialed with more urgency, then groaned when Nancy didn't pick up. "Nancy! Aaaah! Pick up; pick up; pick up! When you get this message you should run as far as possible from where you are right now! Don't even look back! Your life is in danger! This is not a drill! Hang on. Frank wants to say something." Joe tossed the phone clumsily to his wildly gesticulating brother.

"Nancy! Please be careful! I just want to tell you that I've always—"

"—loved you," Frank declared to a loud beep, frozen in a dazed, blinking stupor.

"Her phone must have run out of room," said Joe to himself. Notwithstanding, he turned slowly to his brother, whose ears were strangely aglow. "What was that, Frank?"

"I don't know what it was!" Frank replied miserably. "I wanted to tell her to be careful, and then—"

"I doubt she's going to die, Frank. Nancy knows how to take care of herself."

"I know that! But—I worry."

"And I thought you were talking about her a lot lately just because you were _bored_." Joe smirked. "I've never enjoyed being wrong so much in my life."

"Joe—" Frank hissed, running a hand through his hair and beginning to pace. "What am I going to do?"

"I don't know. This is some mess you've gotten yourself into, Frank," Joe shook his head, smile giving way to a contemplative expression. "And apparently you've forgotten all about Ned."

Frank stopped his pacing. "Oh no. _Ned_!"

"Relax, Frank. Ned could never find his way to _Bayport_, much less an intermittent submarine in the middle of the ocean."

"Aaarrrgggghh!" Said the level-headed Frank.

Both of them jumped when Frank's phone rang.

Frank stayed frozen.

"I called her from my phone. Don't worry," said Joe.

Reluctantly, Frank slid the phone into his sightline and watched it vibrate with an unknown number showing up on the caller ID. Perhaps Nancy was calling from the police station, or from another landline—

"Hello," chirped a voice he didn't expect.

Silence.

"Deirdre?" spoke the girl. "Nancy's investigative contact outside the lab?"

"I believe you've got that wrong," muttered Joe, whose ears were sharp. "_We're_ Nancy's investigative contacts outside the lab."

"Right. Deirdre." Frank said blankly.

"Oooo-kay. Now that you've put two and two together…" said Deirdre. "Ned finally picked up his phone because I told him I had news about Nancy. Then, ironically, Nancy called while I was in the process of explaining to him that _no_, I had just told him that so he would pick up. For some reason, he didn't want to talk to me when I _actually_ had word of her and directed me to you two instead."

Joe rolled his eyes.

"Right. I'll put you on speaker." Frank pressed a button, and Joe felt no longer obligated to mutter.

"She had time to call me," said Deirdre. "It's Victor!"

"We know," Joe said dryly.

"At least Nancy knows," murmured Frank.

"Anyway, after a small freak-out on her part and subsequent pep-talk provided by yours truly, she'd back on track. Probably confronting him as we speak."

"I hope not," said Frank. "Victor is extremely dangerous. I don't doubt he'd kill anybody who knows what he did."

"Then he probably has to kill the whole team, because honestly, it's not that hard to put together. I probably could've come to the same conclusion just from all these clues outlined in my paper. Come to think of it, that would be a perfect _TDPD_ episode. _Who killed the scientist?_" She boomed.

"And how many cases do you say you've investigated on-site?" Joe remarked dryly.

"Joe!" Frank admonished. "Did she sound all right?" He asked Deirdre.

"Considering that she's now being stalked by a cold-blooded murderer who was in it for money… gross amounts of money… (Hah! Capitalism _isn't_ dead! Wish I could tell my prof, but I've already written the paper.) I guess so. I _really_ hope this has a happy ending."

"You're not the only one," assured Frank.

"Anyway, if she doesn't get mauled by Victor, you guys will be the first to know. Well, second. _I'll_ be the first to know."

Joe saw his brother wince. "We're talking about human life here, Deirdre. Think you could be a little bit more optimistic?"

Deirdre sighed, probably rolling her eyes somewhere in River Heights. "Fine. I'll call you if—_when_—" she inflected, "I hear from her again. Bye!"

The line clicked, and the timer froze and blinked. She had hung up.

"_That_ was informative."

"Aren't all conversations with Deirdre informative?" Joe asked innocently.

"Need I remind you that without Deirdre, it would have been difficult if not impossible for Nancy to prove Ryan's innocence."

"Victor wouldn't be after her in that scenario." Joe retorted.

"And then justice wouldn't be served," said Frank, glaring pointedly at his brother. "Be nice."

The two shared a brief silence.

"You never told Nancy it was Victor, you know."

Joe looked at his brother in disbelief. "I thought that that was what you were going to say, but instead, you went off on a tangent. I did _not_ see that coming."

"Enough, Joe. I—"

Their banter was interrupted by a series of rings.

"That was quick," commented Joe as Frank picked up the phone.

"She's out!" cried Deirdre. "Well, she's in the police station, but she's out! Of the lab! And Victor is in custody!"

"All in one piece?" Frank asked.

"If I didn't know better, you almost sound happy, Deirdre," said Joe sardonically.

"Well, it makes for a better paper," she amended, her voice settling down to a more characteristic (still high) timbre.

Joe scoffed.

"Thanks, Deirdre!" Frank said. "Goodbye." He set down his phone and looked at his brother. "Well, she's safe. _Now_ what are we going to do?"

"Nancy might actually have time to answer her phone now that the case is solved," shrugged Joe. "It's worth a shot."

"What's worth a shot?" Frank's eyebrows shot up in what Joe recognized was his angle of a crisis situation.

Joe sighed and picked up his cell phone.

"What are you doing?" Frank's voice was significantly higher in pitch, rising at a level corresponding to his panic.

"I'm calling her again."

"Why?"

Joe turned to his brother while the phone dialed. "I think this is the first time you've lost your wits, Frank." His face fell. 'She's not answering,' he mouthed to Frank, whose shoulders sagged in overwhelming relief.

"Hey Nancy, it's Joe Hardy—of Joe and Frank Hardy." Joe quipped nervously. What _if_ Ned found out about this? Ned was a big man, and though Frank, Joe, Nancy, and anybody else were in a general consensus over the fact that he was for most purposes an overgrown teddy bear, who knew how possessive he got over Nancy, especially considering the fact that Nancy saw a lot more of Frank than she did Ned? Gulping, he pushed on. "I'm calling about that whole security video ping thing. It turns out it was Victor. Also, I found out that you have since solved the case. So please disregard my earlier message. Alright. Well. Okay, goodbye." He glanced briefly at Frank, who didn't look reassured. "Remember that other message is no longer relevant," Joe added. "You should probably just delete it."

Frank stared at Joe as he hung up the phone.

"What?" Joe asked.

"Thanks."

"Nancy's a very curious person, Frank. Any guarantees state that she will check it and not the contrary."

"She's also very tired. Considering her situation, she'll probably listen to the second message, delete them both, then fall promptly asleep."

"Like we're about to?" Joe yawned. "Nancy's all right. I guess that somehow she figured out that it was Victor. I'm going to grab some shut-eye, and don't stay up much longer. Thinking about this isn't going to help you at all."

Frank didn't heed Joe's advice. All things considered, it was supposed to be the other way around. Ever since before they'd work on cases together, Frank would be the advice-giver—and enforcer—as part of his older brother duty. Besides the fact, Frank didn't want to go to bed, and he was honestly surprised that Joe did. Being the more gregarious one, Joe always called for a party. Then again, Frank had probably put a damper on things with his little confession.

His crush on the girl detective was a recent development. Frank was queasy about sending Nancy off in the middle of the desert, but even then, he wasn't quite sure. After all, the desert claimed more lives than any sane location. There was no reason to speak of the way he felt, especially when the object of his newfound affections was already taken. Next month, he'd see Callie again, and then he'd forget he'd ever felt this way. That was another reason that cried 'flawed logic.'

Then came the $64,000 answer.

All boys got crushes on female friends at least once in their lives—especially on submarines with no other female presence.

Yes, Frank Hardy should have kept silent, he told himself. Even the ever-honest, ever-loyal little brother Joe tried to cover up his tracks.

The rest of the night dragged on in such a manner. Frank managed to abandon his logic for a while and go up on deck in time to see the sunrise. It must have been around 50 degrees with a breeze. His hair and clothes from the previous night remained neat although his mouth and throat were dry and sore. No one ever said that all-nighters didn't have a trade-off.

"Morning!" barked the unmistakable voice of Joe behind him. "I told you to sleep, didn't I?" He himself had logged one hour of sleep for the night.

"Hmm?" Frank rubbed his eyes. It was already starting to catch up to him.

Joe checked his phone. "It's 5:35," he said. "You can still get four hours if you're lucky." The phone lit up and vibrated in his hand. From his speculative frown, Frank guessed that it was an unfamiliar number.

"Joe?" asked a hoarse voice.

"Nancy!" Joe replied enthusiastically. "How are you?"

Frank jolted.

"I've seen better days," said Nancy in a gritty tone that indicated that she hadn't slept either.

"Did Victor knock you out?" asked Joe.

"Yeah, and then he tried to electrocute me," said Nancy. "He got electrocuted himself in the process, but he's alive and in custody."

"Hang on! Let me put you on speaker." Joe pressed a button, relieved his brother hadn't heard that last part.

Frank, only discerning a faint humming sound from her words, discovered that this was little better for his comprehension.

"Well, we're glad you're a-love. Alive!" Joe quickly amended.

Nancy laughed wearily. "Right. Frank? Are you there?"

Frank stared blankly ahead.

"Just a minute, Nan. He's gotten about as much sleep as you have. _Frank!_" Joe hissed.

"What?" Frank snapped.

"Hello, Frank," said Nancy.

"Oh," replied Frank. "Uh, hi."

Joe started to speak.

"Wait!" Frank held up a hand despite the fact that Nancy couldn't see him. "Did I tell you that—"

"Oh, look at the time, Frank," said Joe. "You're starting to sound romantic—pedantic!"

"Joe," Frank hissed.

"Hey, I haven't gotten a lot of sleep either!" Joe shot back. "Things are blurring together. From this view, everything's amorous—er… amorphous!"

"Guys?" Nancy asked. "What's going on?"

Dead silence reigned on the Hardys' side of the line. Frank and Joe stared at each other, trying to reach a silent verdict about what to say.

"Joe hasn't seen a girl in weeks," Frank improvised, "and love is thus on his mind. He must have a crush on Deirdre."

'_What?!_' Joe mouthed to his brother.

Nancy just laughed. The brothers looked at each other in relief. If Nancy thought Frank was joking (when in reality, he never did), then they were on solid ground.

"Did you get our messages?" Joe asked finally, slowly.

Frank leaned against the rail and let his head fall into his hands. It was over.

"No, I didn't," said Nancy. "My phone was fried the minute I left Niko's underground study."

Frank's head shot up.

"I'm sorry I didn't call you guys back."

"No, that's fine," said Joe. "We're just glad you made it out all right. You and Frank should probably get some sleep. Uh, and Frank shall sleep here—and you over there—in the police station—Frank on a submarine. I'm on a submarine! What a coincidence!"

"Bye Joe," said Nancy before hanging up.

"What was that, Joe?" Frank asked irritably after Joe's phone was safety stashed in his pocket. "Can't you keep your mouth shut?"

"And you just _had_ to throw in Deirdre," said Joe, sounding just as enthusiastic. "I do _not_ have a crush on—"

"I said that so Nancy didn't think that you had a crush on _her_."

"No, because you're the one who does. Gee thanks, Frank."

Frank grimaced. "Sorry."

"Besides, she was half-asleep," argued Joe. "She won't remember any of my blunders later on. Did it sound like she was listening to a word we were saying?"

"No," Frank admitted. "No, not really."

"And besides, you were going to tell her—"

"—that Victor was the culprit like you _asked_ me to after we sent the first phone message. You really don't trust my mental capabilities, do you?"

"Not with no sleep."

"Well, you got one hour more, and you're not functioning much better."

The two fell in a sleepy silence.

"Joe?"

"Yeah?"

"How come you're helping me cover this up? Or—er—trying to help?"

"Because it was a stupid thing to say and surprisingly atypical of you to do so?" After a pause, Joe added, "It's not the right time. Besides, I don't remember your ever having feelings for Nancy."

"Me neither," said Frank truthfully.

"It's this blasted submarine." Joe's eyes wandered out to the unlit waters. "If it lasts, then worry about it later. If it doesn't, you'll forget it. It'll probably work itself out."

'Time will tell,' added Frank to himself, nearly speaking the words aloud.

* * *

Taken from _The Deadly Device_. It was really obvious that Frank had a crush on Nancy even before the outtakes rolled around. :P I may actually write another oneshot about Nancy's first conversation with the Hardy Boys, the one where Frank got caught talking about Nancy. I've tried to keep everyone IC, except of course for Frank, who is drastically in love and OOC. The title is taken from the last line in Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time." The whole "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" and/or Carpe Diem theme appealed to me for this fic.

Quotes from outtakes are:

1st MESSAGE:

_JOE: Hey Nancy, it's Joe Hardy—of Joe and Frank Hardy. I'm calling about that whole security video ping thing. It turns out it was Victor. Also, I found out that you have since solved the case. So please disregard my earlier message. Alright. Well. Okay, goodbye. Remember that other message is no longer relevant. You should probably just delete it._

2nd MESSAGE

_JOE: Nancy! Aaaah! Pick up; pick up; pick up! When you get this message you should run as far as possible from where you are right now! Don't even look back! Your life is in danger!" This is not a drill! Hang on. Frank wants to say something._

_FRANK: Nancy! Please be careful! I just want to tell you that I've always—_


End file.
